Эрл Гарднер - The Case of the Stepdaughter’s Secret

“That’s right. You caught me at it. Gilly was planning on double-crossing me, so I was taking out a little insurance. Gilly wasn’t really a partner of mine. He was inexperienced in the blackmail racket so he turned to me to handle the deal. Then he figured on double-crossing me and leaving me holding the sack, so I just decided to take out a little insurance, that’s all.”

“And you have gone to the district attorney with all this information and used it to gain immunity from prosecution for the blackmail, haven’t you?”

“What would you have done?” Kelsey asked.

“I’m asking you the question. Have you done that?”

“Yes.”

“And the district attorney gave you money for a haircut, a new suit of clothes and new shoes, so you’d make a good impression in court?”

“Not the district attorney.”

“The sheriff?”

“Yes.”

“And you have received the promise of immunity from the district attorney?”

“Provided I told the truth on the witness stand.”

“And what was his definition of the truth?”

“Well, it had to be a story that there wouldn’t be any holes in.”

“In other words,” Mason said, “if you told a story that would stand up on cross-examination, that was supposed to be the truth. Is that right?”

“Well, something like that.”

“If I was able to trip you up on cross-examination and show that you were lying, then you wouldn’t have any immunity. Is that it?”

“Well, that’s about the size of it, I guess. Of course he didn’t express it quite that way, but I was supposed to be telling the truth. If I’m telling the truth, nobody can punch any holes in my story. I’m to tell a story that stands up and then they’ll make it easy on me.”

“In other words,” Mason said, “if your story is good enough to bring about a conviction of the defendant in this case, you won’t be prosecuted for blackmail. Is that it?”

“Well, now you’re putting your own interpretation on the thing,” Kelsey said, “That wasn’t exactly the way the DA put it up to me and that’s not the way I’m going to let you get our understanding into the record. The understanding was that if I told my story and there were no holes in it, and I was telling the truth so it stood up in court just the way I’d told it to the DA, I didn’t have to worry about getting prosecuted for blackmail.

“Now, I’ll be perfectly frank with you, Mr Mason. I’m no angel. I’ve had trouble and that’s why I couldn’t answer a question about what my occupation was. I’m not going to commit myself. There isn’t any promise of immunity on anything except this one blackmail job. I’m willing to answer all questions about that and I’m going to tell the truth about it, even if it puts me in the position of being something of a heel.

“But you have to remember that I was dealing with a man who really wasn’t a partner. He’d just propositioned me to help him put across a blackmail deal, and then he started double-crossing me right from the start. I didn’t intend to stand for that.”

Mason said, “On the night of the tenth when Gilly was killed, where were you?”

“Now there,” Kelsey said, grinning, “I’ve got a sweet alibi. I was putting the bite on Eve Amory right about the time the murder took place, and after that I drove down to my room and I stayed there all night. I was up until a little after midnight, waiting for Gilly to come in, and when he didn’t come in I just decided he’d given me the double-cross, but I didn’t care too much because I felt sure I was going to make Eve Amory see things my way.

“Everybody would be sore at her because she’d pulled a fast one to get publicity, but that was no skin off my nose. They’d have to turn over the three thousand bucks to her and I’d wind up with all the dough.”

“And what became of Irwin Victor Fordyce?” Mason asked.

“Search me. I don’t know anything about that deal. All I know is that he was out of stir and he was hot, and he evidently took it on the lam when he found out that Gilly had sold him out and was blackmailing the family. You can see it his way. He felt that sooner or later the blackmail deal would get into the hands of the police, they’d find out what it was all about, and since he was hotter than a three-dollar pistol he decided discretion was the better part of valour and he’d better take it on the lam.”

“What do you mean by saying he was hotter than a three-dollar pistol?” Mason asked.

“Just what I said. He had been fingered on a filling-station job and the police were looking for him. As soon as he saw that blackmail letter published in the newspaper, he knew that the fat was in the fire and he decided to get out of circulation.”

“Did you ever talk it over with him?”

“I never spoke to him in my life,” Kelsey said. “I knew him when I saw him because he had a room in the same building where I was staying, but he was Gilly’s friend, not mine. He didn’t know me from Adam.”

“But Gilly knew you.”

“Sure, Gilly knew me. I had a reputation for... Well, we’re not going into that, but Gilly wanted to put a bite on the Bancrofts and he figured I could tell him how to do it.”

“And you told him how to do it?”

“I’m not denying it.”

“And you were actually in Gilly’s room on the night of the murder.”

“That’s right. A little before seven o’clock. Sometime between six-thirty and seven.”

“And what was Gilly doing?”

“I told you, he was eating his dinner; gulping it down pretty fast because he had to leave. He told me he had everything all fixed, that he was going to get three grand to take the place of the money that had slipped through our fingers and he’d be back with it before midnight.

“Like I told you, he was eating canned beans and bread.”

“Coffee?” Mason asked.

“No, he had some milk. He didn’t go much for coffee at night. He drank it in the morning, I think. I tell you, Mr Mason, the man wasn’t my partner. He was just a... Well, he just came to me to help him out, that’s all.”

“Then you went out on this expedition of your own and what time did you get back?”

“I don’t know. Probably... oh, maybe around nine or nine-thirty.”

“And you stayed in your room thereafter?”

“No, I didn’t. I went from my room over to Gilly’s room — oh, half a dozen times — trying to see if he was in.”

“Did you go in?”

“I didn’t have any key. He had the door locked. I looked to see if there was a light in the place and then a little after midnight I tapped on the door to see if he’d come in, hadn’t gone to my place, and had gone to bed instead. Then about one o’clock in the morning I tried it again. By that time I’d come to the conclusion he’d given me another double-cross, had collected the three grand and had decided to dust out. Well, that was all right with me. I figured I could take care of myself in dealing with a cheap, two-bit crook like Gilly.”

“And how did you figure you’d take care of yourself?”

“Like I told you, first I’d make Eve Amory make a statement that the whole thing had been a publicity stunt. That would show she had title to the money. They’d have to give it back to her. I figured that the Bancrofts weren’t going to come forward and say it was their money, because then they’d have to tell the police all about the blackmail deal and they couldn’t afford to do that. So I figured it was all right. Gilly could double-cross me and take the three grand, and I’d double-cross him and get the other three grand and we’d be even. Then I’d take over the blackmail deal and handle it the way it should be done. These were just the first preliminary touches. Before I got done, I was going to put a ten-grand shakedown on the Bancrofts. And then the next time I ran into Gilly I’d make him kick through for the half he’d held out on me.”